A toilet miracle

Late last night we had a breakthrough, a toilet miracle, you could say. Sarah came out of her bed and exclaimed that she wanted to go potty. I was highly doubtful. She has tried to come out of bed for any excuse under the sun (moon). This was probably just a ploy to not sleep. Plus, what toddler who doesn't even get peeing in the potty all of sudden catch themselves when they have an urge in the middle of the night. IMPOSSIBLE. So, not wanting to discourage her or send mixed messages, I reluctantly took her to the bathroom. But this time, something came out. PEE! I was freaking out. After we got her cleaned up after her big accomplishment, she quickly reminded me, "One jellybean, Mommy." That girl has every promise I've ever made to her etched in her brain. At first I was trying to convince her that the jelly bean was going to rot her teeth and that she would get her reward in the morning. But then I looked down at her sweet, disappointed face. She can play me like a violin. And I remembered the promise I made. No exceptions. So, I got out the jellybean and she went over to Dad to proudly tell him the good news. It's time to pull out the big girl underwear. My little girl's all growns up.

Honestly, I'm proud of Sarah and all, but inside I'm also dreading all the false alarms, rushed trips to awful public restrooms, and accidents. When I don't have to clean up another disgusting, poop-covered butt, THAT is when I'll be a free woman.

Potty training deja vu

It's been a year and half and I'm back on potty duty again. Needless to say, Patty Potty and I did not turn out to be the best of friends last time we worked together on a 6-month long project named Abby. We're back again, but this time with a new archrival: Sarah Super Soaker. Expecting that things would go more smoothly and more quickly the second time around (and also hoping that Sarah would just simply follow her sister's lead), I took a relaxed approach. With Sarah at 2 1/2 now and my growing intolerance of the morning trash drop, I've decided to get serious. I'm pulling out the big guns: stickers, jelly beans, chocolate, whatever it takes to motivate this girl. Even Abby gets an incentive if she can get her sister to go in the potty and not in her pants. Initially there was a lot of excitement over all the cool stickers and the large jar of jelly beans. The excitement has grown stale.

Last week I decided to get creative. A friend of mine told me how her son loves Cars the movie and how she made a race track with movable cars that moved forward 1 step each time he peed/had an accident. With each successful potty attempt, Lightning McQueen would advance along the racetrack, and with each accident, the opposing car would move ahead. I made a similar diagram, but modified it to Sarah's passion: Dora. If she goes pee in the potty, Dora gets to climb one step up the mountain. If she has an accident, Swiper moves up. If Dora makes it to the top of the tallest mountain before Swiper, she gets a prize. Sounds like a great concept, doesn't it? This is a great tool for a child who is interested in long-term goals, can deal with delayed gratification and is competitive. Anyone have any potty training techniques for children who can sit in poop and pee all day, have no concept of long-term goals and are not very competitive? If she ever does get motivated to pee, she will get stickers, jelly beans, big girl panties and the privilege of moving Dora (which I took great care in making) up the mountain. Open your eyes, girl! You're sitting on a goldmine! And Abby, she has now assumed the role of Swiper and revels in moving Swiper up the mountain every time Sarah wets her diaper.

Conquering Half Dome and El Capitan

Half Dome
Originally uploaded by hyuhan.

Well. Not quite. But we did conquer our first trip to beautiful, picturesque Yosemite National Park with the girls. And we did brave the steep hike to Vernal Falls. The girls even walked a large portion of the hike, which is rated "Moderately difficult." This is a major feat considering that the difficulty of those hikes in the books are not rated by preschoolers. We have two future mountaineers in the making. Yosemite is hands-down my favorite national park. I could not stop taking pictures and staring at the 360 degrees of beauty. Here are only a few highlights from our excursion.

I think my favorite moment from our 3 day trip was renting bikes and catching all the wildlife and scenery along the Yosemite valley with the girls in their little bike trailer. For Joe I think it was the thrill of being the fastest car in the park, twisting through the windy roads in a minivan (I'm sure it would have been more exhilarating in a Ferrari, but then, where would we put the kids?). For the girls, it was probably swimming at the hotel and sipping hot cocoa while watching Dora from our hotel room. It was truly a trip for the whole family to enjoy.

Update on airdate

We finally have confirmation on our airdates for our reDesign episode. It's been almost a year since we were first selected for the show and we'll finally get to see how it comes out on TV. Of course we already know how the room turns out. The room is fabulous, but I can't make any guarantees about our performance. So, for those of you who have been waiting and asking, the show will be airing 10/21 at 8PM ET/PT on HGTV.